Firefox (and Mozilla) in 2011

Christmas is just days away (oh cripes, I haven’t got Christmas presents for anyone yet!) which means that the New Year is just a few days further, so now is a perfect time to look back on the awesomeness for Mozilla, Firefox and the web in 2011.

Firefox 4

The year started with the epic release of Firefox 4. Firefox 4 brought swathes of new features including a new, streamlined interface, Firefox Sync, annd better performance. However, let’s not allow that voice you hear inside your head when you read stuff to bore you about what was new, but let Johnathan Nightingale, Director of Engineering, do it instead:

48 hours later came some download stats:

Woah!

Firefox for Mobile

Coinciding with the release of Firefox 4 was the release of the shiny new Firefox for Mobile.

HTML5 & CSS3 Awesome

Since Firefox 4 brought so many new, exiting and cool technologies to the masses, we gathered together some of the best demos from around the Mozilla Community to create Web O' Wonder. Today it lives on in the form of the Mozilla Demo Studio where anyone is able to submit the awesome they’ve created.

Launch Parties

There were parties. Lots of parties. We even had one of our own.

Firefox Aurora

Next came the introduction of Firefox’s rapid release schedule. It was a little controversial, to say the least, with users feeling they had been left out in the cold with many add-ons not working in the latest release. We don’t like leaving our users outside, so we brought them in and gave them a warm mug of hot chocolate with the automatic version bumping of add-ons on AMO and the increasingly awesome Add-on Compatibility Reporter.

What did come out of rapid release was the ability to deliver cool new features to our users quicker — a few weeks after releasing Firefox 4 we were able to give Do Not Track to our users — and for the more adventurous type Firefox Aurora offers a way to shape the future of Firefox whilst experiencing the future of the web.

WebFWD

Later on in the year, Pascal Finette launched his baby, the WebFWD project. WebFWD is a “community-driven innovation accelerator from Mozilla Labs.” One such project that is is going though WebFWD is OpenPhoto, a social photo platform (much like Flickr) which provides you with the option of where to store your photos.

The Mozilla Festival

In November was The Mozilla Festival on Media, Freedom and the Web which I attended. MozFest (as we call it) was a three day event where hackers, educators and journalists got together to create awesome stuff.

One of the biggest events of the fest was the release of Mozilla Popcorn 1.0. Popcorn is a JavaScript library which empowers one to create interactive video experiences. With the release of Popcorn came the world premier of One Millionth Tower, an interactive documentary (the first of it’s kind) powered by Popcorn and WebGL.

Rest assured, when so many enthusiastic people get together we don’t just have fun making stuff. When Firefox ping-pong balls and a table tennis table are around you know what's going to happen. Yes, geeks playing ping-pong with their smartphones whilst pushing to github!

Wait, what?!

Firefox’s 7th Birthday

A few days later it was Firefox's Birthday. To celebrate, we adopted some firefox cubs at the local zoo and, for the second time this year, broadcast their cuteness over the internet. In fact, we’re still broadcasting now!

SOPA

More recently, Mozilla, along with other leading organisations including Google, Wikipedia and Twitter, have been forced to take a stance against SOPA, a piece of legislation working its way through the US political system which would, if passed, wreck the web as we know it.

Live in the USA or know anybody who does? Join us in attempting to save the web.

The Mozilla Story & Firefox Challenge

A few weeks ago we launched our annual, end-of-year fundraising campaign with a video about our origins and what we’re striving for. This year, it came with a little twist, as we also launched the Firefox Challenge where we donated $5,000 towards 12 teams’ causes and will donate $25,000 towards the team that raises the most money by 11 January 2012.

Firefox Flicks

A few days ago we announced Firefox Flicks “a campaign giving everyone an opportunity to produce short films that highlight what makes Mozilla Firefox different, that we’re a non-profit organization helping keep the power of the Web in people’s hands.” Applications will be accepted from February–April 2012.

Firefox & Google = <3

More good news! Just yesterday, we announced that, contrary to many reports of us being doomed, we’ve renewed our search deal with Google.

Firefox for Android Optimised for Tablets

And finally, with the recent release of the latest version of Firefox comes a slick, new, optimised interface for Firefox on Tablets.

Summary

This year has been a great year to be a Mozillian. But next year is going to be even better. So let's raise our glasses — or if you’re like me, your mugs of lukewarm tea — and toast for even more awesomeness in the year to come. I think we can do it.